Do Italians speak Spanish? Get an Italian answer!
Italian is a romance language spoken mainly in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, and Vatican City. It has been the official language of Italy since 1861. Many people think Italians talk Spanish, but they don’t; they actually speak Italian!
Read on to find out more about this fascinating topic…
Where is Italian Spoken around the world?
Italian is the official language of Italy and Switzerland, but it’s also spoken in other areas.
Italian is native to Italy, Switzerland, and San Marino. It’s also spoken in Vatican City, France/Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, Tunisia, and Romania.
You can find Italian speakers in Eritrea, Somalia, Libya, and Ethiopia, mainly Italian colonists who fled following World War II.
In addition, there are Italian-speaking individuals in Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, and the United States.
Where is Spanish Spoken around the world?
Spanish is native to Spain and Andorra, Gibraltar, and the autonomous communities of Valencia and the Balearic Islands.
It’s one of Puerto Rico’s two official languages. It is widely spoken in Latin America and North America, like the United States and the Central American countries of Belize, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Cuba, Argentina, and Mexico.
Spain also had control over places like the Philippines, parts of Northern Africa, and even parts of West Africa, where you can find many Spanish speakers.
Do Italians speak Spanish?
The answer is no, they actually speak Italian! While it’s all part of the same family, and there are definitely similarities between the languages, they’re not exactly the same. Even if you have several different Romance languages under your belt, you might struggle with some words in Italian!
Italian speakers often find Spanish faster to learn than Italian.
This is because many words correspond to the same meaning in both languages. For example, “Cielo” means “sky” in Italian, meaning sky in Spanish!
Although this might be funny, it’s actually quite useful as a memory device; you’ll learn Italian twice as fast because you can honestly remember the words more easily. (Here is a table of exact meaning words Italian/Spanish)
Italian speakers might also find it easier to learn Portuguese since there are many similarities between the two languages.
Despite being a Romance language, Portuguese is slightly different from Italian.
One example is that Portuguese uses “se” for third-person subject and object pronouns. On the other hand, Italian doesn’t use “se” like this and adds an extra word to clarify which part of speech is being used.
The Portuguese pronunciation is also quite different from Spanish, making learning easier for Italians.
There are some words in Spanish that Italians might not be able to pronounce correctly. For example, the Spanish word for “ten” is “diez,” but to an Italian speaker, it might sound more like “dis”!
In terms of vocabulary, there are many similarities between Spanish and Italian.
Words with similar meanings can be used in both languages, and they’re often found in other Romance languages too!
Can Spanish speakers understand Italian?
The Answer is No. Even if some words are similar between the two languages, Italian and Spanish speakers cannot understand each other. In most cases, both Italian and Spanish can catch some words in a phrase and guess the meaning based on context.
However, speakers of both languages would be very confused if they tried to have a serious conversation with one another.
Meanwhile, a Spanish speaker would be very confused if they tried to speak with someone who only speaks Italian. There are just too many differences between the two languages to have a serious conversation.
In short, Italian and Spanish speakers cannot understand each other because the languages are very different in structure. However, they might have a small conversation if they tried to guess what the other is saying through context clues.
Other similarities between Italian and Spanish
First and foremost, there are two genders: masculine and feminine. Also, adjectives and articles change depending on whether or not they are in front of a noun.
For example:
| English | Italian | Spanish |
|---|---|---|
| I live in Barcelona | Vivo a Barcellona | Vivo en Barcelona |
| The girl is beautiful | La ragazza è bella | La chica es hermosa |
| live in the city | Abito in città | Yo vivo en la ciudad |
The two languages’ grammatical and syntactic structures are nearly the same, with identical subject-verb-object sentence structure that is understood by anybody who has either language under their belt.
Differences between Spanish and Italian
The primary difference between the languages is where they originated. Both derive from Latin, but Italian took a small additional step.
The first form of Italian was “il Fiorentino,” which is the same language used by Dante Alighieri to write “La Divina Commedia. Then become Italian.
Some Italian words are unique to the language, and we use numerous “slang or small words” and basic sounds that no other language utilizes.
Some of these small words can be used for everything in a conversation, to an expression of confusion, uncertainty, doubts, or just because you are bored (like mah), or to say “I dunno,” “I am not sure.” (Like Boh).
On top of that, Italy has a lot of dialects. These dialects are spread across the country because Italy has a large landmass. You will hear the language from one dialect to another as you travel across the country.
To put it in perspective: In Sardinia, where I live, we speak Sardo, and no other Regions in Italy can understand this language. At the same time, I cannot understand the Sicilian dialect.
However, many more differences between the two languages make it hard for one to understand a speaker of another.
For example, Spanish prefers the simple past tense, while Italian utilizes the perfect tense. Italian does not accent small words to indicate plurality or gender as Spanish does.
As far as the pronunciation goes, it is essential to understand that Italians and Spanish do not sound each other’s words out altogether.
A couple of different rules come into play when pronouncing Spanish words in Italian and vice versa.
Spanish vowels usually sound softer when pronounced by an Italian speaker. In addition to that, Italians pronounce the “y” as an English “i.”
For example:
This is my friend – Questo è mio amico
The last rule to take into account is stress. When pronouncing words in Spanish, Italians usually emphasize the last syllable of a word.
Do Italians prefer English or Spanish?
Italians would rather speak English to one another, and they don’t frequently use Spanish words in their daily conversations.
Conversations between Italians will likely consist of many Italian words mixed with a few English phrases here and there, but not very much Spanish.
In fact, many Italians who live in big cities might not even know how to speak Spanish at all.
However, those living in less populated regions or smaller towns would likely be more familiar with Spanish words and phrases because they contact Spanish speakers every now and again.
Romance languages List:
- English
- Italiano
- Español
- Français
- Deutsch
- Português
